PROTECT PERSONAL DATA: Secure Your Online Accounts and Devices

Quick Action

Facebook failed to protect its users’ personal information from exploitation by third parties interested in manipulating voters. Follow these steps to secure your devices and online accounts, and protect your private data from prying eyes and bad actors.

The amount of data Facebook and Google collect on all of us (even if we don’t have accounts) is astonishing, and security lapses like those that allowed Cambridge Analytica access to it pose wide-ranging and long-term risks. Here are the most important things all of us should be doing right now to plug the many data holes. Get comfy. Plugging the holes takes time, so take this task on in small bites.

BUTTON UP YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

ADJUST YOUR SECURITY SETTINGS. Follow these instructions or watch a short video! Click on the downward facing arrow at the top right corner of your Facebook Page. Choose Settings. On the left-hand sidebar go down the list one-by-one. Pay particular attention to:

Security and Login: Choose “Log Out of All Sessions”. After you log back in from a computer, return to the same place and change your password before logging back in on any other device. Use as many of the security features listed on this page as you are comfortable with.

Apps and Websites: Check out all the apps you are logged into and what data they harvest! Hover over each one to delete it or change the settings to private. Best to delete as many as you can, and never log into apps through Facebook. Scroll a bit further down to turn off Games and Apps Notifications to stop getting all those invitations to play Candy Crush and other apps that harvest data.

Ads: Control the kinds of ads Facebook sends by clicking off topics in “Your Interests”. Click OFF companies that have your data in the next “Advertisers you’ve interacted with” section. Turn OFF all the options in “Your information”. Choose NO/NO ONE for all the options listed in the “Ad settings” section to prevent future sharing and harvesting of your data.

MAKE YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE LESS PUBLIC. On your Facebook page, click the About tab. Move down the page section by section, hovering over each piece of personal information to highlight the icons for editing privacy settings. Delete information, or change it to be visible to your friends or only to you. You can manage privacy settings for each section, and can choose to hide entire sections from view. Unless you need others to know where you work, where you went to school, who your friends are, and what groups you belong to, make those sections private.

CHECK YOURSELF OUT. To see how your facebook page looks to the outside world, go back to the downward arrow in the upper right corner, choose Settings, choose Timeline and Tagging, and then look for “Review what other people see on your timeline.”

BUTTON UP YOUR GOOGLE ACTIVITY

Sign-In & Security: Use the Security Checkup tool, and follow any recommendations. Change your password. Check to make sure that the apps that have access to your account are ones you trust and use, and delete any that you don’t. Make sure the “Allow less secure apps” toggle is set to OFF.

Personal Info & Privacy: Use the Privacy Checkup tool to adjust your settings to the most private options available. Be sure to UNCHECK the box on the Shared Endorsements page that would allow google to include your personal data in its ads. Be sure to DISABLE the option for Google to collect data on your web & app activity, location history, voice & audio activity, and YouTube search and watch history. Turn OFF ad personalization.

Account preferences: Delete any accounts and services you no longer use.

BUTTON UP YOUR DEVICES

Use passwords and fingerprints to lock your devices.

Always update your devices as soon as you’re notified.

Cover the cameras on your computer and phone with a small piece of electrical tape.

Some browsers are more secure than others. Firefox and Chrome seem to be the most highly regarded. Firefox recently released an extension called Facebook Container.

Install a tracker blocker like Ghostery. Newer browsers have them built in.

Suit Up Maine is a statewide, all-volunteer, progressive, grassroots group of more than 5,400 Mainers that seeks to create and foster a more informed and engaged electorate. We raise awareness of and advocate for policies and legislation that promote equity and equality in civil rights, social justice, health care, the environment, education, the economy, and other areas that affect the lives of all people. We are beholden to issues and action, not parties or politicians, and we aren’t engaged in fundraising. Suit Up Maine fosters collaboration among our state’s progressive groups and organizations to collectively connect, educate, and motivate Mainers to rise in non-violent resistance to a regressive agenda.